When photographing in New York City one rainy night I had an idea for an image while my Taxi Cab passed the Radio City Music Hall. I wanted to capture an image of the marquee through the front windshield, raindrops, and all. I thought it would be reminiscent of the days of film, both still and movie.
To accomplish this, I had the Driver drive around the block(s) several times (for the uninitiated, NYC streets alternate one way and therefore you travel several blocks by vehicle to get back to the same place). I did get the impression that the Cabby thought I was crazy...but ultimately, he did not complain about the $60 fare. After several trips around the circular route, I finally caught two images that I liked (I knew because I was shooting digitally and could see the images I captured). The best image (below) captured the hand of the driver on the steering wheel and the fare light on the dashboard as well as the marquee featuring the CNN Speaker series (Mike Huckabee and Anderson Cooper's names flashing by). Another Cab, a Limo, street signs show Manhatten in all its glory. The image was so sharp and represented NYC so well, that Ogilvy & Mathers (who honored me by purchasing the image when they have so many great Photographers under Contract) purchased it (for $7,500) for an entire wall in their Offices. Well worth the $60 investment!
Kudos on the sale of this image. Congrats on envisioning what it might look like and pursuing the execution of creating it. Persistance pays off sometimes.
Love the image... love the story!!
Now that you have the story behind that image with the credibility of the mural at CNN, it should be offered as a very limited edition, gallery, print, and the value that print can actually be sold for more than what you sold the image to CNN for! example: 30x40" or 40x60" edition of 5 with an opening price of $9,000 for the 30x40! ...we canall discuss this further in cocktails with critiques